HIGH SCHOOL SWIMMING: ND, Princeton ready to duel again for county crown

PLAINSBORO — Over the past five years, the Notre Dame and Princeton High boys swimming teams took turns winning multiple Mercer County Championships.

The Irish were winners in 2008, 2009 and 2010, until the Little Tigers knocked them off of their perch to claim and defend the title over the two following seasons. With the playing field fairly even after Friday’s Mercer County Tournament preliminary round, it appears that the same two squads are going to duke it out once again for area supremacy.

The three-day county event is being hosted by Lawrence High, but is being swum at West Windsor-Plainsboro North.

Princeton dropped ND without much struggle in their regular-season meeting, but the depth of the Irish roster is going to play a huge factor in Saturday’s final.

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“We’re not focusing on any team in particular, we are just doing everything we can to get points. Notre Dame is swimming very well, as is every team here. It’s a great meet,” said Princeton coach Greg Hand, whose team dominated the county meet last season.

Senior Jason Ivins led ND in the preliminary round, winning the 200-meter freestyle (1:58.00) and placing second in the 400-meter freestyle (4:14.04). Junior Max Cummings took second in the 50-meter freestyle (24.70) behind Lawrence’s Peter Finnerty (24.46), but came back to best the Cardinals speedster in the 100-meter freestyle, finishing first in 54.10. ND is also seeded second in the 200-meter freestyle relay.

“We’ve had some really great swims so far. Everyone’s doing well, so it’s exciting. It would be awesome to bring the county title back. Since the three-peat, we’ve been a rebuilding team, so we’ll see what happens,” said Ivins, who helped the Irish to a county championship during his freshman season.

Ivins knows that to top the Little Tigers, ND is going to have to give its best, because Hand returns a fierce group of swimmers with championship experience.

“It’s all in our heads, we have to want it,” Ivins said.

“A lot of teams here give us some competition. This is a great meet and we’re trying to win as many of these as we can. It’s great to have a team like ND right on our heels. It’s fun to swim against the top guys in the county. We have some tough competition out here, but we’ll see,” said Princeton junior Peter Kalibat, who is seeded first in the 400-meter freestyle (4:12.15) and third in the 200-meter freestyle (1:59.71).

Kalibat will have his hands full Saturday,when he will battle with Ivins in both the 200-and 400-freestyles.

Also for Princeton, junior Will Stange finished first in the 100-meter backstroke (1:00.42) and second to Hightstown’s senior freestyler Scott Vitabile (59.16) in the 100-meter butterfly.

The two areas the Little Tigers are going to try and score high in are the 100-breaststroke and relays. Colburn Yu (second), Dan Andronov (fourth) and Alex Bank (sixth) all will return for the breaststroke, and the team of Stange, Yu, Peter Cohen and Matt Purdy took first in the 200-meter medley relay in 1:52.99.

While either Princeton or ND are the favorites to repeat, West Windsor Plainsboro North positioned a significant number of swimmers in the top 12 to shake things up a bit and take at least a top-three finish. Senior Greg Cino swam for third in the 400-free (4:14.26) and landed a fourth in the 200-free (2:02.57) to lead the Knights. North delivered a statement swim in the 200-free relay as Matt Tan, Wilson Chan, Brian Chan and Cino swam for first in 1:42.47.

Steinert senior Zach Mabin is making a case to score the swimmer of the meet award. Mabin won both the preliminary 200-meter individual medley (2:17.22) and the 100-breast (1:07.41).